Puntius titteya

Cherry Barb

I bought five cherry barbs, and they are all so happy. I have 3 males and 2 females. One of the females is much bigger than the other four, and they all follow her around. I also have 3 Elegant Corys and 3 Harlequin Rasboras in that tank. They all get along great. I must say that the big female cherry barb is my favorite of all my fish in that tank. She recognizes me, and comes up to greet me when I stand near the tank. She's such a sweetheart. She even breaks up the fights when the males get aggressive (which isn't very often). I must say that cherry barbs are some of the most hardy of my fish (second only to corys), and they're laid back but inquisitive nature makes them so much fun to watch.

I bought a cherry barb at a pet store one day. He was a puny thing, the only one in the tank, and I felt bad for him so I wanted to give him a good home. He was a nice deep red, and he outlived all of my other fish, and survived many tank transfers and relocations. I named him Pike, and he lived for six years. I had no idea that tropical fish could be so long-lived. Tonight, I came in to feed him, and I found that the heater in his 20 liter tank had malfunctioned. It overheated the tank, and Pike was dead. I just wanted to share with other readers the joy Pike gave me. He was with me for so long, I thought he would always be there. I never expected to be so attached to a fish, but after having him for so many years... Well, that's about all. I just wanted to share the memory of Pike, and wish him well in fish heaven. If you're pondering getting a cherry barb, I can think of no other fish that will give you more pleasure.

I started with 4 cherry barbs - 3 males and 1 female for my daughter's 40 L tank. She liked them because they were pink. After a few weeks I noticed a baby, but never saw the eggs. I worried that the adults would eat it, but the next day, it was still there and more keep appearing. They're all doing fine on crumbled flake food, frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms. I still haven't figured out where the eggs were - probably in the gravel somewhere.

What a strange fish. I recently bought a pair. They school with my neons, they're all the same size. The neons readily accept them, eating and swimming with them. However, they are not part of the typical "pecking order" fights the neons have. I accidentally dropped the male into the plughole of my sink when I bought him. I pulled him out by the tail and dropped him into my tank. He began picking at algae IMMEDIATELY. What a hardy fish. Interestingly, the female seems to have authority over the larger male. Wierd.

Cherry barbs are surprisingly easy to breed. I had two females for about a year, I tried breeding a male I had just bought about half a year ago with the female that I could catch (the other female was very stealthy), and I placed them in a 40 liter tank. Unfortunately the female was so aggresive and the male so weak, the male died and the female died about a month later of an unknown cause. About a month ago I bought a 5 cm long male cherry barb, very bright red on account of swimming with females all the time. I still had one female in my tank at home that had been looking very fat for three months or so, I set up a 40 liter tank with a cave of rocks and after some time and patience, caught the female and put the male and her into the tank. Almost immediately the male started nugding her, and they had laid about 50 or so eggs when the female went into a little cave that the male refused to enter. I didn't want that, because I knew that the female could stay there forever and then we wouldn't get anymore eggs, so I chased her out and loosely blocked the cave with a rock. Unfortunately, I had to leave for San diego the next day, so I put some holiday sticks in there and hoped everything would be fine. Five days later when I returned, I found 4 transparent baby fish and no parents. I eventually saw a white mold inside the cave I had blocked up. Apparently the female had managed to get inside the cave and the male had followed her, and during their rigorous spawing the female had gotten stuck and died, and the male had to spend at the most 5 days swimming next to his fermenting mate. This was, however, to the baby fish's advantage, because the white mold was infusoria and this supplied them with food. I bought another female and right now I'm waiting for her to mature. I raised the 4 babies and they were getting their colors and were about 1 cm at 2 weeks. At 3 weeks I realized there were 5 babies in the tank. I had missed one baby fish in all those numerous times I counted the babies. They are eating crushed flake food, and at half a week and a month old, they are colored with a pink belly, black stripe from the tail to the mouth, with gold on top of the stripe and gold fins. The male that started all of this is in the 350 liter community tank, until the female matures.

When I started my tank I got a few fish, and 5 were cherry barbs...3 males and 2 females. Unfortunately 1 male and 1 female died from Ich. My tank has been running for 6 months now and the three others are fine. I love these fish because they are beautiful and always swimming. These fish are always breeding, and I am raising fry now. I can't say anything bad about these fish.